


The Prince of Destruction

by sjofn



Category: Metalocalypse, The Sandman
Genre: Crossover, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-31
Updated: 2011-03-31
Packaged: 2017-10-25 00:57:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/269916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sjofn/pseuds/sjofn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The night before Renovationklok. This is a crossover with The Sandman. Nathan is in The Dreaming.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Prince of Destruction

Nathan trudged up a dune against the dessert wind. There was sand everywhere. It was in his hair, under his clothes, inside his boots. His eyes burned with tears as his body tried to flush the sand from them. This was a fucking nightmare.

 

He closed his eyes and stood still. This couldn’t possibly be real. He was dreaming. He had to be dreaming. How the fuck did he get to the dessert? Hadn’t he been at home? He hated fucking sand. Fuck Murderface and his sandscape. It was a stupid idea, and thanks to it he was dreaming about a world filled with sand. Wasn’t he? Usually he woke up the moment he became aware he was dreaming.

 

The wind slacked off and Nathan opened his eyes. He wasn’t in the same place anymore. He was standing on a heath; as far as he could see the uneven land was sparsely covered with stunted shrubs and heather. The sky was dark, but an unusual burgundy color, with stars that weren’t anything like anything he had ever seen, they moved across the sky in an intricate pattern. He stared for a moment.

 

“Wake up Explosion!” He bellowed. He stood there for a moment and when nothing happened he looked back up at the sky for a few more minutes.

 

“I have to be fucking dreaming.” The singer said aloud to himself.

 

“You are.”

 

Nathan glanced around, craning his neck to look behind him. He didn’t see anyone.

 

A raven that had been a few feet to the left had hopped over to sit on the ground directly in front of him.

 

“Bird are you talking?” Nathan asked, but he knew that it had been. He was now 100% certain that he was asleep.

 

“Yes. My name is Matthew, not Bird.” the raven responded.

 

“What is this place?” Nathan asked. It all looked so familiar and something about the field he was looking across brought aching pain to his chest.

 

“This is the Dreaming, and this is your dream, Nathan. This is the place you see in your mind, when you think of the field where you last died.” the bird responded.

 

“What. Wait. When I last died? Am I dead? How do you know my name?”

 

“I know your name because I was sent to meet you. You are not dead, the Lord of this Realm desires an audience with you. Please, follow me.” The raven launched himself into the air and started flying across the field.

 

Nathan followed. What else could he do? When they crested the next hill they were suddenly somewhere else entirely. Nathan stood looking up at a castle a hundred times the size of Mordhaus. It looked as if it had been designed using every style of architecture mankind had ever used. Visually it made very little sense.

 

When they reached the gate the raven landed on the ground.

 

“This one has an audience with our Lord.” He told the three large forms guarding the gate. There was a griffin, a weird looking dragon with only two legs, and some horse headed thing.

 

“Whoa. What the hell is that?” Nathan asked gesturing towards the least identifiable of the guardians.

 

 

All three of the creatures turned as one to look at Nathan.

 

The weird looking dragon spoke, “We had thought that perhaps another lifetime would have taught you to hold your tongue.”

 

The horse-headed thing spoke, “I am a hippogriff, and one of the guardians of this castle.”

 

The Griffin inclined its head, “Welcome. Do not stray from the path.”

 

 

*******

 

The path was illuminated from beneath, or maybe the stones of the floor were glowing. Nathan couldn’t decide. The details of the room they were walking though were obscured by the too bright light of the path. Several more large chambers passed before they went through a stone arch way. The room was a long with a broad stone stairwell arching up the center of the far side. Matthew flew across the room and landed on the banister.

 

There was a woman standing in front of the stairwell. She was dressed in all black, her dress was old fashioned, but her boots were impressive. You had to admire a woman who could wear knee high steel toe boots with eyelet laces, boots that probably weighed fifty pounds. Her skin was colorless and her perfect lips were painted black.

 

“Walk with me for a while Nathan.” She said in a beautiful voice. Looking at her he realized that he must really already belong to her. Wait. What? The thought had made very little sense. Not making sense seemed to be the theme of this dream so far.

 

They walked up the stairs together. At the top they stood on a balcony and looked out over an impossible vista. It seemed that the entire world was burning before their eyes.

 

“If I asked you for a favor would you grant it?” She asked in a confidential tone.

 

“Uh, Why ask? I get the feeling that I’m yours to command.” Nathan replied. He hadn’t planned the words, but all the same he felt they were the best thing he could have possibly said.

 

“You aren’t mine. I love you as my own, that much is true, but you belong to my brother. He has left the mortal realm, but you are still his child. In a way I am your Aunt.” She looked sad; her face seemed to fall when she said the word brother. Nathan found himself wanting to comfort her, to sooth whatever heartache she suffered.

 

Her laughter startled him from his thoughts. “It will never cease to surprise me how tender a soul you actually are. Life after life, you are a walking contradiction Prince of Destruction.”

 

“Wait. Life after life? You only get one life. Don’t you?” Nathan wanted answers. This was the third time someone had implied that he had lived more than once, first the bird, then the dragon at the gate, and now this woman.

 

“Your soul is bound to the earth Nathan. I have taken you a hundred times, and each time you have been reborn.” Her words were a whisper; the wind blowing across the balcony almost carried them away.

 

“Who are you?” Nathan asked.

 

“Is he always this slow?” Matthew asked, landing on the railing of the balcony.

 

Nathan glared at the raven. He hadn’t wanted to just blurt out the idea that he had about her identity, but the insult goaded him into guessing. “You’re Death. Am I right?” he said choosing to ignore the insult from his guide, and hoping that he was correct. Assuming that a beautiful woman was the personification of death was the type of thing that could be taken the wrong way.

 

“I am. And you are the mortal child of Destruction of the Endless. Your soul was bound to this realm by your father and the gods of Asgard. You and the others have finally gathered, and the prophecy has nearly been fulfilled.”

 

“I wish I knew what you were talking about. I feel like I should understand but I don’t.” Nathan admitted. He wished Charles was there to explain it to him, but he wasn’t. This was a dream, and he wasn’t here. Even if it was real he wouldn’t be here. He was dead, and wouldn’t be explaining anything else to Nathan ever.

 

“About the favor.” She said softly, leaning against the railing and looking out at the fires below.

 

“Ask me.” He said leaning against the railing next to her. He wondered what Death could possibly want from him.

 

“I need you to try.” She said simply.

 

It wasn’t what he expected; he hadn’t really had any expectations of what she was going to say, but still. Shit. Where was he even supposed to start. He had tried. He had been trying; it had only been today, when he had been looking for their current contract with the label in Charles’s hard drive that he had given up. How the fuck was he supposed to do this? It would make sense to hire someone, or at least to consult with one of the lawyers on the staff, but he couldn’t do it. It didn’t make sense, and he didn’t want to think about why, but he couldn’t get a new lawyer/manager. His train of thought made him realize something. He was too aware for this to be just a dream. Somehow this was real.

 

“This is really happening right now. I mean I am asleep. But this is real. You are real. That bird, he’s real. Am I making sense?”

 

“Yes, you are.” She said with a wry little smile.

 

“Why does Death want me to try? What do you even mean by try?” Nathan questioned. Something about her demeanor invited questions; he somehow knew she would give him absolutely honest answers.

 

“You knew exactly what I meant. And I want you to try, because there are things you don’t know Nathan. I saw you give up tonight. I was there. So was the one whom you are here to see.” Death said softly. She looked over into his face, and seemed to be searching for something with her eyes for a moment.

 

“Who am I here to see?” Nathan had to ask.

 

The same sadness as before shined in her eyes briefly before she said the name. “Dream of the Endless”

 

Nathan wanted to ask why the question had saddened her, but before he could speak she spoke again.

 

“It would be too much to explain in depth, and he’s waiting. The best way to explain is that we are siblings, it’s more than that and less but those are the terms that fit it best. Through the eons things have changed. Destruction, your father left us some time ago, leaving myself, Dream, Desire, Despair, and Delirium. So about the favor?” She changed the subject, and stepped away from the railing and turned to walk back inside.

 

“It’s really all I can do.” Nathan said softly. Death stepped close and hugged him, it was a surprise at first, but after a moment it was familiar. Hugging her was somehow exactly like hugging his mother. She let out a small chuckle and stepped back from him and he knew she had heard his thoughts.

 

She patted him on the cheek. “It’s not as bad as it seems to be Nathan.” She took his hand and led him back into the castle.

Death led the way back down the stairs and they continued on the unusually lit path through several more long galleries before they finally reached an enormous set of double doors that swung open to admit them.

 

They had reached the throne room; as soon as Nathan laid eyes on the man sitting on the dais he realized he had met him in his dreams before. He remembered a conversation he’d had with him when he’d only been a child. He seemed different, like a completely different person, but he was still recognizable as the same man.

 

“You.” Nathan breathed and bowed his head. If this was real then every one of those dreams had been real to some degree. It made his head hurt.

 

“It’s best if you don’t think about it.” Death said. She stood behind Nathan, her presence familiar and reassuring.

 

The Lord of Dreams began to speak. “Nathan. I brought you here because I feel we should tell you the truth of things. You have been told before, but each time you die, you start anew. My older sister has an interest in you, to tell the truth we all do, you are the last scion of Destruction, and attentions of the Endless have greatly affected your lives. You are family in a way, and you hold great power, but you seem hardly aware of it in this incarnation.” The Lord of Dreams leaned forward and folded his hands together before he continued.

 

“Long ago Destruction, Odin, and Thor all impregnated a different mortal woman in the same small village. The three of them made a pact, that their mortal sons would someday rule the earth, and bring about the end of all things. However, the three children were all killed before manhood by a simple virus. Your souls were reborn, and prophets the world over started seeing your coming as a sign of the end of all things.”

 

Nathan thought for a moment. “Pickles and Skwisgaar?” he asked. There was no reason to bother articulating the rest of the sentence since they all already knew what he was thinking.

 

“Yes, they are the sons of Asgard.” Death answered.

 

What about Charles? Since they had all met, since day one, he had felt that he had known Pickles and Skwisgaar forever. It had been the same with Charles. Was he involved in this?

 

He didn’t even have to ask aloud, Death was a well spring of information.

 

“As the centuries have passed you have gained power Nathan. The other two have gained power as well, but not in quite the same way. I think it was your sixth life when you met him. Something about your soul calls to his and vise versa. The two of you have followed each other from life to life; since you met you have been a two for one deal, your lives entwined so thoroughly that you have lived and died together. In only one life you were brothers, and in Rome… Well, I don’t want to disturb your sensibilities nephew, but you were certainly not brothers in that time.”

 

Her last sentence struck him as the first lie she had uttered. She did want to disturb his sensibilities. It was the entire point of her statement. He had followed her meaning, and it had led to territory he didn’t dare enter, not even in his own dreams. What would be the point? If he was going to try, as Death wanted him to, he couldn’t wallow in what might have been.

 

Dream stood and walked down the steps to stand in front of Nathan.

 

“You three are very close to succeeding to fulfill the prophecy in this life. At this moment you stand on the edge of a razor. Your choices are more important than you realize. As long as you remain in control of your empire the end will stay in the distant future. If it falls into the hands of those that would be your enemies the world will fall as well. ”

 

Nathan stood looking confused, puzzling through everything that had been said over the last few minutes. Something wasn’t sitting right. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but somehow he was missing something huge.

 

“Tell him sister. I think it will help him to remember the important part of what I have said once he wakes.” the Lord of the Realm said with a sigh.

 

“I think that he’ll get it if he thinks about what I have said.” Death looked at him expectantly.

 

And Nathan woke up.

 

***

 

His head felt like it was packed with cotton and his mouth tasted as if something had died in it. He blinked his eyes a few times trying to figure out where he had been sleeping. He was looking up at an unfamiliar ceiling, and the sunlight flooding the room told him that he was not asleep in any of the rooms he normally passed out in. He rolled over and the evening before came rushing back at the sight of the desk.

 

He had come here to find the old contract. He had given up, gotten drunk on the bottle of brandy he’d found in the desk, eaten a handful of pills, and spent the night on the floor of Charles’s office. The last thing he remembered was deciding that they would just sign the fucking contract. He was surprised to find that he had changed his mind.

 

They were just going to have to play the show and call the label’s bluff. It wouldn’t do to give up with out a fight.

 

He dragged himself up off of the floor and headed down to his room to start getting ready for the show. If the label shut it down, they would cross that bridge when they came to it. For the first time in nine months he felt confident about a decision he had made.

 

As he walked toward the door he noticed a single black feather on the floor. He bent to pick it up. Looking at it stirred something in his mind, and he remembered a bit of a dream he’d had the night before.

Death was a beauty for which men would willingly die, and she loved him as her own and wanted him to try. Huh. It wasn’t really a good idea for a song, but the sentence had rhythm. Like something he’d told himself to remember. There was more to it, something urgently important that he couldn’t remember now that he was fully awake.

 

It had been a strange dream, but not bad. Waking up knowing exactly what he was going to do was more than he could say about any other day over the last nine months.


End file.
